Winter Wander

 

Today we ventured out to the Pentland Hills only to find half of Edinburgh had the same idea.  We were lulled into a false expectation as our Christmas Day walk was, surprisingly, all on our own. Today every roadside was lined with cars and council staff were putting either warnings or penalty notices on the windscreens of particularly badly parked cars. All the same there was room and more tranquillity once you ventured away from the car parks! 

  

The trees were oblivious of the hoo-ha but displaying a seasonal streak of snow on the windward side. 

Even the most gnarled shrubs take on a festive look.

Just to confound all expectations at this time of year the gorse is flowering in places around the district. We headed home under a dramatic wintery sky

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all readers.

Christmas Bakes 4

 

Staying with Italy for another day, here is an example of treating a familiar material (dough) in a different way to produce something novel:  breadsticks or "grissini"

Having made a Ciabatta dough you slice off strips which are then stretched and rolled in a coating of salt flakes, sesame seeds or poppy seeds and rested on a lined tray for the second rise.

Baked for a good while (30 mins or so) until they have dried out to the core. 

As they have no moisture left they will keep for ages in a tin or jar. It is a little too easy to overdo the salt flakes but the sesame seed and poppy seed ones are infallible!  

Christmas Bakes 3

 

A firm favourite at Christmas, Italian pannetone  has usurped the place of barmbrack (which I recall arriving parcel post from Ireland each year.)  Rich sweet but still light it is truly seductive.  The good news is that you don't have to get it imported from Italy, you can make the real thing fresh at home! 

Over the years I have gathered more than one pannetone baking tin, but this year the large one (below)is not going to be used due to the restrictions on family gatherings. Instead I am making one larger and two smaller ones so that they can be "gifted" to other households.

 

Recipes are widely available online and you will want to adapt any one you choose to allow for tastes. Some use fresh peel or candied.  Some add chocolate or cherries or all sorts of things. The good news is you can choose your own fruit mix depending on what you like (and what you have in store). My go to recipe since 2012 has been Dan Lepard's - with adaptations. He tops off the loaf just before baking with a sweet nutty paste and some whole almonds. 

Ready for the final rise

Many traditional recipes include overnight proving in the fridge but as long as you leave plenty of time (4-6 hrs or so) for that final rise there is no problem.  (You should feel how cold our kitchen gets anyway!)

Oven ready

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 A further spring while baking makes for a light texture.

Fresh out of the oven

 With plenty of butter and sugar these keep for ages, well wrapped or in a tin, and never fail to impress!

Christmas Bakes 2

 

Today's bake is Taralli - an Italian snack made from flour, wine and olive oil.  Additional flavourings are either chilli flakes, dried rosemary, fennel seeds or cracked black pepper.  Each member of the family has their favourite, but without doubt the chilli ones boss the rest.  (They have to be cooked last so that the flavours don't mingle.) For us they have become associated with Christmas.

The process is to knead together 1Kg of '00' pasta flour with 400ml of wine and 200ml olive oil and 3 teaspoons of salt.  Rest the dough for at least an hour. Then divide into 4 before adding the chosen flavourings, rolling out into stands and shaping into rings.  Each ring is then dunked into a large pan of  simmering water and only fished out once it has risen to the surface.  (Slotted spoon required!) 

Quickly dried off on a teatowel they are then laid out on a lined baking tray and baked until dried out to the core.  About half an hour at gas mark 5 seems to do the trick.

The end result stores for weeks (or months) and is traditionally served with a glass of wine or a cocktail nibble.  They are also very popular on their own although they will make you thirsty! The above quantities make about 140 taralli.  

Christmas Bakes 1

 

It is time to dust off the recipe books for those seasonal treats. Ordinarily they would be snaffled up by visiting friends and family.  This year consumption is likely to be over a longer period with fewer mouths to feed!  I am starting with long shelf life items. These spiced biscuits are baked to a dry 'biscuit' consistency. They benefit from a freshly made up spice mix.  All over Europe the mix varies subtly.  I have gingered these up a bit more than the mix I  found on the net.

Oh Oh - We're in Trouble

 

Context is everything when it comes to raptors.

This lady sparrowhawk was sitting in the plum tree where we hang the bird feeders...

...and had already feasted on a kill.

While I agree with Monty Don on most things (garden centres and peat compost for example) there is a limit to my tolerance when it comes to predating on small songbirds. One is enough! So out I went to photograph it away.

For light relief I headed off to the allotment to harvest carrots. Some of them are whoppers and only a few are forked.

I am about halfway through the crop now. The net was originally to keep the carrot fly away but now serves as frost protection.

For the record, here is the first parsnip of the year - and that's my first celeriac, destined for a warming Winter Casserole of Vegetables.

Now a return of the music in honour of our visitor:

The Hills Have Ice

Taking a familiar route the scenery has been transformed by the low sun and the snow on the Ochil Hills over in Fife.

Gone are the flowers, aside from a few stubborn gorse, and the farmer's crop of wheat has gone into waterlogged/icebound hibernation.

 With nature drawing in its horns, there's not much to entertain at the macro level. But the scenery is at its most majestic.

PS Look no pylon!

Christmas Future

 

The Royal Edinburgh Botanic Gardens Christmas light show has become an annual feature.  There were restrictions in force but a sense of extraordinary was reassuringly "normal" this year!